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Shaping asbestos policy: global connections and local mobilisations

“It is Tuesday 13 th March 2007 – day two of my first research trip to India . This morning I’m off to meet Brigadier Sethi who represents the Chrysotile Asbestos Cement Products Manufacturers’ Association. I am nervous about this interview because my research proposal clearly shows my viewpoint on asbestos: I state the links between ‘powerful asbestos companies’ and ‘government policy; I challenge the ‘benign’ nature of chrysotile asbestos; and I dismiss the notion of ‘safe use of asbestos’.”

 Linda Waldman , DRC research with the Citizen Engagements in a Globalising World Group gives a brief account of her field research in India on asbestos policy.

 We arrive at Everest Industries Ltd and once inside I am greeted warmly, directed to a new leather sofa and low-slung marble table and offered coffee. After a while Brigadier Sethi comes over and introduces me to Mr Gupta, the Managing Director of Everest Industries Ltd. Mr Gupta explains to me that Everest produces both asbestos- and non-asbestos-roofing and that asbestos roofs are cheaper to manufacture.

They justify the continued use of asbestos by arguing that the European countries once used blue and brown asbestos in ignorance and in massive quantities without precautions or workplace controls. India learnt from this and only uses white asbestos. The manufacturing process, they tell me, is very advanced, based on international threshold levels, and no asbestos is seen in the entire factory. No-one touches it, and it is moved on pallets. (I was later to visit an asbestos cement factory and to discover that this is very much the ideal and seldom followed in practice).

According to Brigadier Sethi and Mr Gupta, the Indian government and trade unions have ‘categorically proved’ under controlled conditions there are no cases of asbestosis. They say the problems lie in the ‘disorganised’ or unruly informal sector.

Brigadier Sethi concludes: “ India is a responsible democracy…If asbestos is not good for its health, the government will ban it …The government and the public is convinced that the use of white asbestos does not pose any health risk… It is not out of ignorance, it is out of knowledge that we are using asbestos.”

Leaving Brigadier Sethi and Mr Gupta’s comfortable air-conditioned office, I head for the Indian Social Institute to attend the Shipbuilders Platform for Action. The topic under discussion is the ‘Blue Lady’, an ironic name for a ship said to be carrying 1200 tons of asbestos and due for dismantling at Alang, one of the world’s biggest ship breaking yards. Attending the meeting are members of the Ban Asbestos Network, India (BANI), trade union representatives, NGOs, activists, lawyers and medical doctors as well as representatives from the Platform on Ship breaking - a global coalition of environmental, human and labour rights organisations.

The Blue Lady was given beaching permission despite this being illegal on several counts and the case was being heard by the Indian Supreme Court. One of the lawyers explains that she’s experiencing a lot of hostility from the bench. She’s worried about what is being done to the law, and forecast changes to the hazard waste legislation. She said, “In my experience the court is perverting the meaning of environment. They use it to nullify the needs of local people or to justify things that they are doing”.

BANI is a small movement of diverse people with widely differing levels of expertise. For their members, the challenge is huge. Although everyone is supportive of the anti-asbestos movement, not everyone has the same set of vested interests. Trade unions are in a particularly awkward position as they, along with other Indian and international players, are struggling to find ways to bring these issues to forefront of public consciousness and – in so doing – to put pressure on government members.

In contrast to the view put forward by the asbestos cement industry and Brigadier Sethi, the trade unions are not aligned with government on the issue of asbestos and its associated dangers, nor are they able to hold government to account. One BANI member asked, “How can we raise these things? It’s not just the ships, it’s the whole law and the 10-15 years of effort we have all put in”.

Later on in my research, I would discover the complex ways in which NGOs are also hampered in their work and how they find themselves both advantaged and compromised by their international networks. I would also learn how government officials erased asbestos diseases from the official record, refusing to recognise their own acts of censure and how this process underscored the industry’s position that asbestos was safe.